dreams - fleetwood mac✦°

°✦'thunder only happens when it's raining'

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IN NO TIME AT ALL, defense against the dark arts had become most people's favorite class. only draco malfoy and his gang of slytherins had anything bad to say about professor lupin.

"look at the state of his robes," malfoy would say in a loud whisper as professor lupin passed. "he dresses like our old house-elf."

y/n had to constantly remind harry that not all slytherins were horrible and that she herself had friends from the house. though she was sure it would never stick in his thick skull but she still tried.

no one else cared that lupin's robes were patched and frayed. i mean, ripped jeans was a style once, right? his next few lessons were just as interesting as the first. after boggarts, they studied red caps, nasty little goblin like creatures that lurked wherever there had been bloodshed: in the dungeons of castles and the potholes of deserted battlefields, waiting to bludge on those who had gotten lost. from red caps they moved on to kappas, creepy water-dwellers that looked like scaly monkeys, with webbed hands itching to strangle unwitting waders in their ponds.

y/n had also gotten into the bad habit of waking up in the middle of the night and going on strolls around the castle. so far, she had drawn on george's face, stolen all of ron's socks and hung them from the ceiling in the common room (magically obviously, it would take too long to do by hand), and put water in harry's shoes, which would annoy him deeply but she didn't care because it was funny. one night, harry had caught her trying to decorate his bed frame in pink tinsel and in his half-awake state, pulled her by the wrist, into bed to sleep.

snape was in a particularly vindictive mood these days, though he was always nasty to y/n, but no one was in any doubt why. the story of the boggart assuming snape's shape, and the way that neville had dressed it in his grandmother's clothes, had travelled through the school like wildfire. snape didn't seem to find it funny. but y/n did. she laughed at him any chance she got, right before his eyes. his eyes flashed menacingly at the very mention of lupin's name, and he was bullying neville worse than ever. 

y/n and the weasley twins had finally gotten around to executing their prank on filch which consisted of sneaking into his office, and jinxing every single object on his desk to scream a curse every time it was touched. it didn't take long for filch to figure out what they had done - within a couple days he was screeching at them for invading his space. fair enough but what was he going to do about it? dumbledore would laugh in his face.

harry was also growing to dread the hours he spent in professor trelawney's stifling tower room, deciphering lopsided shapes and symbols, trying to ignore the way professor trelawney's enormous eyes filled with tears every time she looked at him. it made it especially worse for him that y/n had decided to just not show up to any more of her divination lessons, a feat which even professor trelawney hadn't seen emerging from the fog. 

hagrid seemed to have lost his confidence in care of magical creatures too. they were now spending lesson after lesson learning how to look after flobberworms, which had to be some of the most boring creatures in existence.

"why would anyone bother looking after them?" said ron, after yet another hour of poking shredded lettuce down the flobberworms' slimy throats. y/n nodded in agreement. they were so ugly.

"they kind of look like you harold." y/n says seriously. it wasn't true but he didn't have to know that. he scowls at her.

at the start of october, the quidditch season was approaching, oliver called a meeting one thursday evening to discuss tactics for the new season. there were seven people on a quidditch team: three chasers, two beaters, a keeper and the seeker. wood was now in his seventh and final year at hogwarts. there was a quiet sort of desperation in his voice as he addressed his six fellow team members in the chilly locker rooms on the edge of the darkening quidditch field.

"this is our last chance — my last chance — to win the quidditch cup," he told them, striding up and down in front of them. "i'll be leaving at the end of this year. i'll never get another shot at it. gryffindor hasn't won for seven years now. okay, so we've had the worst luck in the world — injuries — then the tournament getting called off last year. ..." wood swallowed, as though the memory still brought a lump to his throat. "but we also know we've got the best — ruddy — team — in— the — school," he said, punching a fist into his other hand, the old manic glint back in his eye. "we've got three superb chasers." wood pointed at y/n, angelina, and katie. "we've got two unbeatable beaters."

"stop it, oliver, you're embarrassing us," said fred and george together, pretending to blush.

"and we've got a seeker who has never failed to win us a match!" wood rumbled, glaring at harry with a kind of furious pride. y/n, who was stood next to harry, rolled her eyes at his. his ego was fat enough.

"and me," he added as an after thought.

"we think you're very good too, oli," said y/n.

"spanking good keeper," said fred and george in unison.

"the point is," wood went on, resuming his pacing, "the quidditch cup should have had our name on it these last two years. ever since harry and y/n joined the team, i've thought the thing was in the bag. but we haven't got it, and this year's the last chance we'll get to finally see our name on the thing..."

wood spoke so dejectedly that even y/n felt sympathetic.

"oliver, this year's our year," said fred.

"we'll do it, oliver!" said angelina.

"definitely," said harry.

the team started training sessions three evenings a week. the weather was getting colder and wetter, the nights darker, but no amount of mud, wind, or rain could tarnish their wonderful vision of finally winning the huge, silver quidditch cup. harry and y/n returned to the gryffindor common room one evening after training, cold and stiff but pleased with the way practice had gone, to find the room buzzing excitedly.

"what's happened?" harry asked ron and hermione, who were sitting in two of the best chairs by the fireside and completing some star charts for astronomy. y/n shrugs off her coat and looked for where she could sit. harry opened her arms out to her, making her flop onto his lap.

"first hogsmeade weekend," said ron, pointing at a notice that had appeared on the battered old bulletin board. "end of october. halloween."

"i love halloween so much." y/n sighs.

"excellent," said fred, who had followed harry through the portrait hole. "i need to visit zonko's. i'm nearly out of stink pellets."

"harry, i'm sure you'll be able to go next time," she said. "they're bound to catch black soon. he's been sighted once already"

"black's not fool enough to try anything in hogsmeade," said ron. "ask mcgonagall if you can go this time, harry. the next one might not be for ages —"

"ron!" said hermione. "harry's supposed to stay in school—"

"he can't be the only third year left behind," said ron.

"he won't be," says y/n speaking up. "i can't go either."

"what?" says hermione confusedly.

"mum gave the form to dad to sign and she forgot about it. dad doesn't want me to go. i already told you guys on the train."

"i still think you should ask mcgonagall, harry." says ron, disregarding y/n's situation completely. y/n loved ronald to bits but he was being such a dick lately.

"yeah, i think i will," said harry, making up his mind. y/n rolls her eyes and gets up from his lap. she walks over to hermione and sits in front of her. hermione opened her mouth to argue with harry, but at that moment crookshanks leapt lightly onto her lap. a large, dead spider was dangling from his mouth.

"does he have to eat that in front of us?" said ron, scowling.

"clever crookshanks, did you catch that all by yourself?" said hermione. crookshanks slowly chewed up the spider, his yellow eyes fixed insolently on ron.

"just keep him over there, that's all," said ron irritably, turning back to his star chart. "i've got scabbers asleep in my bag."

y/n, who was sat in front of hermione, leaned her head back in exhaustion. her mind wandered back to her boggart. was she really that afraid of the dream she had that day? and she couldn't stop asking what did it mean?

realistically, who was going to know what a silver swimming pool meant. (i sure don't). dumbledore was a cryptic bitch, her parents were sort of out of question at the moment, harry doesn't know, she doesn't know if she should even tell hermione and ron. maybe she'd go to the library and work something out then.

harry yawned. he really wanted to go to bed, but he still had his own star chart to complete. he pulled his bag toward him, took out parchment, ink, and quill, and started his work.

"you can copy mine, if you like," said ron, labelling his last star with a flourish and shoving the chart toward harry.

hermione, who disapproved of copying, pursed her lips but didn't say anything. crookshanks was still staring unblinkingly at ron, flicking the end of his bushy tail. then, without warning, he pounced.

"OY!" ron roared, seizing his bag as crookshanks sank four sets of claws deep inside it and began tearing ferociously. 

"GET OFF, YOU STUPID ANIMAL!"ron tried to pull the bag away from crookshanks, but crookshanks clung on, spitting and slashing.

"ron, don't hurt him!" squealed hermione; the whole common room was watching; ron whirled the bag around, crookshanks still clinging to it, and scabbers came flying out of the top —

"CATCH THAT CAT!" ron yelled as crookshanks freed himself from the remnants of the bag, sprang over the table, and chased after the terrified scabbers. george made a lunge for crookshanks but missed; scabbers streaked through twenty pairs of legs and shot beneath an old chest of drawers. 

at this point, y/n got bored of watching a literal cat and mouse chase and decided she would do some homework of her own, which was weird because homework wasn't ever done till the very last minute for her. 

"look at him!" he said furiously to hermione, dangling scabbers in front of her. "he's skin and bone! you keep that cat away from him!"

"crookshanks doesn't understand it's wrong!" said hermione, her voice shaking. "all cats chase rats, ron!"

"there's something funny about that animal!" said ron, who was trying to persuade a frantically wiggling scabbers back into his pocket. "it heard me say that scabbers was in my bag!"

"oh, what rubbish," said hermione impatiently. "crookshanks could smell him, ron, how else d'you think—"

"that cat's got it in for scabbers!" said ron, ignoring the people around him, who were starting to giggle which was fair enough because he was being ridiculous. "and scabbers was here first, and he's ill!"

ron marched through the common room and out of sight up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.

y/n sighed at the pettiness, looking at an exasperated harry who seemed to share her thoughts.

---

ron was still in a bad mood with hermione next day. he barely talked to her all through herbology, even though he, harry, y/n and hermione were working together on the same puffapod.

"how's scabbers?" hermione asked timidly, disregarding any advice y/n had given her, saying 'he's a boy, just ignore him' which y/n thought was valid advice, but alas not everyone was as cool as her.

"he's hiding at the bottom of my bed, shaking," said ron angrily, missing the pail and scattering beans over the greenhouse floor. 

"careful, weasley, careful!" cried professor sprout as the beans burst into bloom before their very eyes.

"ron. stop being such a prissy brat. its really not that deep, get a grip. its a fucking rat." ron ignores y/n as she sternly tells him to stop being childish, but y/n concludes that this was also because he's a boy and boys are stupid.

they had transfiguration next. harry, who had resolved to ask professor mcgonagall after the lesson whether he could go into hogsmeade with the rest, much to y/n's dismay (he hadn't said anything about her not being able to go, which y/n didn't like because he was usually quite considerate towards her, and the fact that she thought 'oh it's fine that i can't go, i've got harry' and he thought 'i'll ask mcgonagall if i can go even if it means y/n will be alone here' deeply bothered her),  joined the line outside the class trying to decide how he was going to argue his case. he was distracted, however, by a disturbance at the front of the line.

lavender seemed to be crying. parvati had her arm around her and was explaining something to seamus and dean, who were looking very serious. 

"what's the matter, lav?" said y/n as she, hermione, harry, and ron went to join the group.

"she got a letter from home this morning," parvati whispered. "it's her rabbit, binky. he's been killed by a fox."

"oh," said hermione, "i'm sorry, lavender." 

y/n walked around harry, dragging her fingers across his back (quite jarringly to be honest) as she made her way to lavender, putting an arm around her, in a comforting hug. 

"i should have known!" said lavender tragically. "you know what day it is?"

"er —"

"the sixteenth of october! 'that thing you're dreading, it will happen on the sixteenth of october!' remember? she was right, she was right!"

hermione hesitated; then she said, "you — you were dreading binky being killed by a fox?"

y/n mentally shakes her head. she loved the girl, but hermione clearly loved to dig herself a deeper grave. 

"well, not necessarily by a fox," said lavender, looking up at hermione with streaming eyes from y/n's shoulder, "but i was obviously dreading him dying, wasn't i?"

"oh," said hermione. she paused again. then —"was binky an old rabbit?"

godric mione.

"n — no!" sobbed lavender. "h — he was only a baby!"

"but then, why would you dread him dying?" said hermione.

parvati glared at her.

"well, look at it logically," said hermione. "i mean, binky didn't even die today, did he? lavender just got the news today —"

lavender wailed loudly. 

"— and she can't have been dreading it, because it's come as a real shock —"

"don't mind hermione, lavender," said ron loudly, "she doesn't think other people's pets matter very much."

professor mcgonagall opened the classroom door at that moment, which was perhaps lucky; hermione and ron were looking daggers at each other, and didn't talk to each other for the whole class. it was petty, really but because of this, harry sat with ron, and y/n with hermione, whereas usually y/n and harry sat together. y/n didnt mind though, she was pretty annoyed at harry anyways.

"one moment, please!" she called as the class made to leave. "as you're all in my house, you should hand hogsmeade permission forms to me before halloween. no form, no visiting the village, so don't forget!"

neville put up his hand.

"please, professor, i — i think i've lost —"

"your grandmother sent yours to me directly, longbottom," said professor mcgonagall. "she seemed to think it was safer. well, that's all, you may leave."

as y/n left she distinctly heard ron say, "ask her now," 

y/n was not in the mood to stay and watch harry ask to leave her behind by herself. she gets that he won't be included, but neither will she! and then after that y/n had to endure everyone talking about it and harry sat there sulking as if she was going to hogsmeade too. y/n thought that she might as well just go, sneak through a tunnel to get there, and no one would bat an eye because it seemed that not a soul had noticed that she wasn't going. she might be over exaggerating but y/n doesn't care. in fact, y/n came up with a plan so that she could fulfil harry's wishes of being the only one at hogwarts. 

after the next class, which was filled with ron trying to cheer harry up and y/n being quite blatantly rude to the two boys, y/n goes to find lee jordan.

"lee!" y/n calls, from down the hall. he turns around and waves.

"hey y/n, to what do i owe the delight of your company?"

"pretty please may you sign my hogsmeade form? please?" she pleads. 

"uh no that's forgery." he says.

"yes but your handwriting looks just like my dad's. its perfect! no one will know! i haven't told a soul it's not signed." she reasons. y/n reasons well, too. not truthfully but lee didn't know that right now...

"ok fine." he gives in. "pass it here."

she pulls it out her handbag, beaming.

"thank you! when we go i'll buy you some chocolate from honeydukes." y/n promises, as he uses her back to sign the form with her father's name.

and with that sorted, y/n walks back to her dorm happily, thinking that even though she shouldn't have, and that it was extremely petty, and harry probably doesn't even know what he did to make her upset, she still thought it was worth it. 

on halloween morning, harry awoke with the rest and went down to breakfast, feeling thoroughly depressed, though doing his best to act normally. and though usually, y/n would've asked him what was wrong by then, she hadn't, which unsettled harry slightly, and y/n could tell, which made her roll her eyes because he had only just realised, around two weeks later, that she wasn't happy with him.

"we'll bring you lots of sweets back from honeydukes," said hermione, looking desperately sorry for him.

"yeah, loads," said ron. he and hermione had finally forgotten their squabble about crookshanks in the face of harry's difficulties.

"don't worry about me," said harry, in a tone that sent y/n up the fucking wall.

"i certainly won't." y/n muttered and harry frowned at her, evidently showing he had heard her.

unfortunately, he didn't get the hint and accompanied them to the entrance hall, where filch was standing inside the front doors, checking off names against a long list, peering suspiciously into every face, and making sure that no one was sneaking out who shouldn't be going. this did technically include y/n but thanks to lee it was no longer a problem.

"staying here, potter?" shouted malfoy, who was standing in line with crabbe and goyle. "scared of passing the dementors?"

y/n didn't say anything. neither did harry. 

---

"there you go," said ron. "we got as much as we could carry."

a shower of brilliantly coloured sweets fell into harry's lap. it was dusk, and ron and hermione had just turned up in the common room, pink-faced from the cold wind and looking as though they'd had the time of their lives.

y/n did not go back with them. she was still holding her grudge and had gone back a half an hour earlier, to sit by the black lake even though she didn't care too much about them ignoring her- it was how they always were, too caught up in danger this and danger that to stop and actually live their lives and y/n promised herself that regardless of whether they wanted to join her, y/n would make sure she lived. she wasn't happy with the way the three of them had been treating her. and this was how she was going to protest... this time. she had something brewing in her mind if they didn't suspect anything.

"thanks," said harry, picking up a packet of tiny black pepper imps. "hey- where's y/n?"

"uh, we aren't sure actually, she seemed pretty angry when we left for hogsmeade but she came before us." said ron.

"we were hoping she was with you!" said hermione.

"no she didn't come back, i've been here for about an hour now." said harry. "i think i know where she is, just- wait here."

meanwhile, y/n stares across the lake, desperately wishing it was summer and that she could take a dip in the cool water. 

you only live once right?

y/n quickly removed her clothes, down to her tank top, bra and red knickers, and then dived into the water. it was absolutely freezing - it was october - but so thrilling. her hair stuck to her neck and her hand went blue after about five minutes but she didn't care. 

another two or three minutes went by, before a certain bespectacled boy entered the horizon. harry spotted her and shook his head at her stupidity, before jogging down to her. 

"y/n! get out the water you idiot, you'll get hypothermia."

y/n stuck her middle finger up at him, and went back to floating in a star shape on the surface. 

"ok listen, im sorry for not hearing you, like properly. i shouldn't've complained so much, even though you weren't able to go either. speaking of - how did you end up going because im pretty sure you were mad at me for moping about it even though you couldn't go- " harry rambled. only to be cut off by y/n;

"so now you acknowledge that i wasn't going to go either? god harry you are so dense. you've had a hard life, i get it but that doesn't mean you can make others feel like shit, especially when they're supposed to be your best friend!"

"i'm sorry my lovely tiger lily, i really am. if i realised that it bothered you that much, then i wouldn't have made such a fuss. will you come out the water please? you'll get sick, you know."

she was getting cold anyways. she got out the lake, dripping of the murky black water. he pulled off his jacket and walked closer to her, wrapping it around her. she felt content with him to say the least. 

harry reached behind his back and pulled out a bouquet of red lilies.

"lilies for my tiger lily." he says, holding them out for her. she smiled and took them from him.

"you're so cheesy. where were you even hiding them?" she laughs.

"in my jeans." he grins. she shakes her head, pulling her jeans on. 

a/n - hello my lovely readers, it's been a while. like, a long while. dont worry. i have this chapter and a shorter next chapter for you guys. no the longest but a girl tries her best. i won't lie, i kind of hate this one, it's so useless. but i did want to show that harry and y/n do argue, but it's not like ron and hermione where they don't talk for days after arguing, these two make up really fast. so sorry i've gone and published this chapter.

anyways, much love to you all and BYE! 

-p

word count: 3844